Wednesday, October 04, 2006

Lack of Communication

So the evening didn’t get off to a great start. Because I was late finishing work, I took a taxi up to the Hamburger Union in Soho where we were meeting and was quite pleased with only getting their ten minutes behind schedule. The contented feeling disappeared when I realised there was no-one else there – plus it wasn’t the place we’d been to before, but Ping had definitely said the one in Soho so I gave him a call on his mobile… which rang and rang and then diverted to voicemail. So I called Brett… whose phone rang and rang and then diverted to voicemail.

“No problem,” thought I, “One of them is bound to hear if I try again…”

Well, to cut a long story short, ten minutes later I gave up trying each of them repetitively and asked the staff about any other branches in the area. Sure enough there’s the Covent Garden Branch so after wandering about for a further ten minutes before realising Garrick Street wasn’t where I expected, I got into another taxi and paid a fiver for the privilege of being taken to the Hamburger Union that isn’t in Soho after all.

Shortly after I sat down and apologised for being a bit late, Ping looked at his phone and wondered why he had ten missed calls from me. He got sheepish when I explained why.I seem to recall that he keeps it on silent alert because he doesn’t like it ringing when he’s out and about and it was in his jacket pocket so he didn’t see/feel it ringing.Brett’s, on the other hand, was ringing just fine – at home, where he’d left it! Well, what is the f***ing point??

I sat waiting for my hamburger trying to be social and not fume too visibly until I calmed down.